Libraries start testing MPS statistics beta

Indian subsidiary of Macmillan starts testing web service to collate usage statistics

Beta testing of ScholarlyStats, a journal usage and report building tool, has begun. MPS Technologies, a division of publishers Macmillan, has released the beta to information professionals to assess before the full launch of the application in the autumn.

ScholarlyStats will provide information professionals with a single resource for collecting all usage data into a consolidated view and analysing usage results for electronic journals and databases. Martha Sedgwick, MPS Technologies project manager for ScholarlyStats, assured information professionals that the usage data would be secure and will not be shared.

"Currently, many librarians collect, reformat and merge individual statistics reports every month from a large number of publishers and vendors," she said, adding that some departments are spending up to two days a month on analysing reports. There is no single supplier of usage data, each publisher or vendor will supply information professionals with Counting Online Usage of Networked Electronic Resources (Counter) data separately.

ScholarlyStats is being beta-tested by 50 libraries around the world and will be available as a subscription service this autumn. Pricing has yet to be finalised.

MPS Technologies is the technology arm of the Macmillan publishing house, which publishes Nature. Based in New Delhi, India, MPS Technologies develops applications for information professionals and publishers. Macmillan is highly active in India and recently acquired another publishing services business there, Charon Tech.